Ninety Days of Small Goals

About this journal

Ninety days is long enough to change something and short enough to see the end of it.

Most goal setting fails at the same place. Not at the goal, which is usually fine, but at the gap between the goal and Tuesday morning. Nobody wrote down what to actually do.

This planner closes that gap twelve times. One goal a week, broken into five steps you could start today, with the week laid out next to it so the steps have somewhere to live.

Twelve weeks, one goal at a time

Each week is a spread. On the left the goal, why it matters, five steps and the obstacle you already know about. On the right the seven days, a habit grid and space for what actually happened.

Twelve weeks is the useful unit. A year is too long to hold in your head and a month is over before a habit sticks. Ninety days is where most people finish something for the first time in years.

What is inside

• 12 goal spreads: the goal on the left, the week on the right
• Five steps per goal, because a goal without steps is a wish
• A seven-day grid for eight habits, ticked in seconds
• A weekly review with the question most planners avoid: what did you not do
• A full review every four weeks, three in total
• Three short pages on picking a goal that survives contact with a Tuesday
• Six lined pages at the back

Who it is for

• Anyone who has bought a planner in January and abandoned it by February
• Women juggling work, a household and something they keep meaning to start
• Freelancers and small business owners with no one setting deadlines for them
• Students and anyone studying alongside a job
• People who do not want an app, a subscription or a productivity system with a name

Large format, on purpose

This one is 8.5 x 11 inches rather than pocket sized. A week laid out next to its goal needs the room, and a habit grid you have to squint at is a habit grid you stop filling in.

It is undated, so week one is whatever week you open it. Miss a week and the numbering still makes sense.

Questions people ask

Is it dated? No. Week one is whichever week you open it, and a missed week does not leave a hole in the numbering.

Does it have to be twelve different goals? No. Plenty of people run one goal across three or four weeks and use the steps to break it into stages.

Why so large? A week laid out next to its goal needs the space, and a habit grid you have to squint at is a habit grid you stop filling in.

Does it work for fitness goals, business goals or study? All three. The structure is the same: one goal, five steps, seven days, one review.

The details

• 8.5 x 11 inches, 80 pages, matte cover
• Undated: start in the middle of the year without wasting a page
• Printed in colour on white paper
• Lies flat enough to write on at a desk or a kitchen table

Twelve weeks, one goal at a time, broken into steps you will actually take. Ninety days from now you will either have done it or you will know exactly where it stopped, and both of those are worth having.

Also from Mara Linde

Work, Honestly, twenty-six weeks of finding out where your hours go, and What Is This For, twelve months of the questions people put off.